Watch Bishop Ward’s latest video above. Read the transcript below.
“We United Methodist people live in profound connection with one another and across the state of North Carolina, Bishop Goodpaster in the Western North Carolina Conference and I have convened under the leadership of Gil Rendle, a wonderful United Methodist consultant, a series of meetings of our Cabinets – Western North Carolina and North Carolina Conference together.
Each of our annual conferences have eight district superintendents and so, our group together- 16 superintendents and two bishops. As we met together recently, we spoke together about the new configurations of ministry, overwhelmingly affirmed by our neighboring annual conferences.
We spoke together about the excitement that we share about this new way of being in ministry. We also named challenges which we are identifying as we move forward. We have partnered with one district superintendent in the North Carolina Conference and one district superintendent in the Western North Carolina Conference, being in prayer and communication partnership with one another, eight teams of two. Bishop Goodpaster and I continue to be in communication with one another as well.
We will meet in this community together in about six months again, as we continue to work together and monitor our progress, to share our learnings and to puzzle together through the quandaries which we identify as well.
We decided together in the North Carolina Conference configuration, the eight district superintendents along with me, to create in each district a mission strategy team in order to work with the district superintendent, who our Discipline now describes as the chief missions strategist of the district.
In this and in many other ways, we are moving forward the life which we share together. We invite each of you to be a part of the creation of this new way of being in ministry together.
May God bless us with an inventive spirit, so that the Holy Spirit may be creatively flowing in our midst as we engage God’s mission in this time to which we have been called.”